How Music Works 1 - Melody - Part 1
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN people recommend the series as a good, approachable introduction to music theory with historical context.
What it is
The first part of a four-part Channel 4 (UK) documentary series presented by Howard Goodall, this episode covers melody and why tunes affect us so deeply. It explains how melody works in Western music with historical background and music theory.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2009 to 2016.
What Hacker News said
Recommends dc2k08 · 2009-06 · on “Ask HN: How many of you play music?”
piano/keyboards - have my eyes on one of these: [LINK] by the way, 4 part series on music theory that's worth a watch: [this video]
Recommends kreek · 2011-03 · on “Music Theory for Beginners”
'Music Theory for Computer Musicians' was very helpful for me. [LINK] There's also a great TV series from England called 'How Music Works' which gives more of a historical background. [this video]
Recommends doublescoop · 2016-11 · on “Don't Give Up on the Guitar, Fender Is Begging You”
A djembe is played with rhythm and tone, but the rhythm itself doesn't have any tone color. Rhythm is time. Notes are wavelength, and in Western music we use a 12 note system to denote them, and musical theory is a shorthand used to denote the complex mathematical intervals at work in it. It's fascinating stuff, and if you're interested in learning more about it there's a great BBC series available on YouTube that describes what's happening in Western musical theory: How Music Works [this video] Suggesting that students don't need to learn basic music theory is kind of ridiculous. Can the human ears find the tonic/dominant/sub-dominant interval relationships on their own? Of course. That's part o